Some Random Thoughts On Today’s Results
While we are still waiting on many results to come in, it appears that Obama will carry the Presidency, Mitch is crushing JLT, the Indiana State House appears to be remaining in Democrat control, the Democrats are gaining seats in the Senate (but don’t appear to be getting the magic 60 number), and there seems to be fairly little change in the House of Representatives. So here are some random thoughts that I have about what I have seen today.
- It is not a good thing when the core of our party is not who picks our nominee
- When we let the “country club” Republicans run the party, we lose
- Running a campaign on the basis of “I’m not the other guy” is not effective
- The American people have forgotten what the cost of big government is; they do not remember socialism and communism
- We cannot rely on “disaffected” Democrats to bring in the vote for Republicans, they must be won
- Scurrilous charges need to be answered
- The Democrats ground game has caught up to the Republican ground game
- Polling was largely correct
- George W Bush was the gift that kept on giving to the Democrats
- It will now be a huge challenge to regain control of “voting irregularities” as ACORN, etc. will be largely unchecked for at least two more years
- We are no longer a racist country, right?
- If you are going to mess up campaign finance, you might get burned by it
- Indiana voters vote on personalities and not on ideas
- Reapportionment and redistricting in 2011 will be critical for the future of governance
- My hopes of working toward fundamental education reform will have to wait for at least two more years
- The reaction to this election is NOT to move to the left
November 4th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
“When we let the “country club” Republicans run the party, we lose”
Amen. Mitt ‘12
November 5th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Um, George W. Bush was the pick of the party’s core and look at how well that turned out…
November 5th, 2008 at 2:07 am
We are no longer a racist country, right?
Does it? The electoral map sorta looks 1948, only with John McCain winning the Dixiecrat states. The McCain campaign was mostly based on scaring voters. It works in states where most voters are uneducated whites.
Indiana voters vote on personalities and not on ideas
That’s true in most places. Voters know ideas are pretty easy to come by. People write letters to the editor all the time. What you’re looking for is someone who is willing to steal the ideas he needs, and someone who can tell the difference between good ideas and bad ideas.
Bush was unpopular because of the debacles of Katrina, and Iraq, and because he ran massive deficits that resulted in an economic meltdown. When Obama pointed out that McCain was a Bush clone, claiming that McCain offered no change from Bush policies, McCain wasn’t able to name any significant policy differences. And when the financial meltdown happened, he showed what he was made of, frantically offering something different every few hours.
If the GOP had presented a capable administrator, someone who clearly enunciated the traditional conservative policies of fiscal responsibility, of peace through strength, of keeping government out of your private matters, and of firmly supporting the full bill of rights, not just the second, but the others as well, they could have won.
Mitt Romney? No. He looks so slick that Halliburton would look like a paragon of virtue.
Huck? No. Not when he points out the Bible and the Constitution disagree, and advocates amending the Constitution to conform to the Bible.
Paul? No. Not when he’s as racist as he is.
Rudy? No. Not when every problem looks like 9/11 to him, and he has a terrible record on handling terrorism.
Fred? No. He comes across as a fine man, but not a leader, unless you’re trying to start a club to cure insomnia.
Bobby Jindal might have won, though.
November 5th, 2008 at 8:56 am
“First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (I Timothy 2:1-4)
Pray.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Sarah 2012.
When they let her be herself, she was great.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I think we need to not focus on 2012 at this point. Many will come and go in the next 4 years. I could see Mitt, or Palin, or Jindal being the Republican nominee in 2012. But it could be someone else as well.
Our focus must be on 2010. From a national standpoint we need a second Republican Revolution a la 1994, even thought that could give us problems in 2012 as it did in 1996. We need to start TODAY finding the right candidate to run against the Democrats in the Indiana House delegation. We need to be finding the right candidate to run against Evan Bayh.
From a state standpoint, we need to make sure we have a multi-vote majority in the State House–it is important to control the legislature in the redistricting year.
I think we both as a state and as a national party also need to consider how we choose our candidates. Our current method is not working well. It is expensive and it allows non-Republicans choose the Republican nominee.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:58 am
“So this is how democracy dies. With thunderous applause”
Joel - Agreed. Though first thing is first - getting the head out of the a** of the GOP leadership. If that means storming the castle at the grassroots then so be it. It’s not as you said here from the “alphabet” network talking heads - the GOP does not need to move to the far left to compete against the socialists that hijacked the Democrat party.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Michael, the GOP has had two major victories in my lifetime and two major losses. 1980 and 1994 were the victories. 2006 and 2008 have been the losses. The victories were both when the party stood for conservatism. The losses were when we were “moderate”.
To me it is clear which direction to go.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Marion County GOP took a bath last night. “Country Club” leadership is very appropriate. I nominate Tom Marendt or Dave Miller as next county chair…guys who really are long time insiders and who have the parties’ interest at heart, not their legal firms/place of employment. Finding and recruiting good candidates, PC’s, WC’s and more aggressive marketing will be a start.
Dump Tom John, in other words.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Mike, top to bottom, there needs to be a lot of analysis of who the leaders are. Whoever is the head of the GOP (I just looked it up, Mike Duncan) needs to resign. So do the Republican leadership in the Congress. There are many chairmen nationwide that need to be replaced.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
“So do the Republican leadership in the Congress.”
So you think Boehner and Blunt should be replaced? Think Mike Pence is the guy to replace one of them?
November 5th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Yep. That is exactly what I think. There were 88 members of the RSC reelected and several of the seats that were held by RSC members who retired were retained (so I am hoping there will be more than 88 members of the RSC in the new Congress). With 8 seats left to be determined, there are 173 Republicans in the House.
The leadership of the House SHOULD be held by RSC members. Cantor; Pence; Hensarling; etc. They need to stand together and put each other into power.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
OK - which you think would work best for us? Cantor as leader and Pence as whip or vice-versa?
November 5th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
That’s a bit of inside baseball that I just am not as sure about. If I were voting, I would do Pence leader, Cantor whip. But either way works for me.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
You know, ordinarily you guys would be railing non-stop about a Repub poll worker ordered off the premises of a polling site. But this was termed ‘voter intimidation’ AND it was your pal ’squidward’. Did that make a difference? Seems almost like the whole thing never happened, except that WTHR picked up the story early yesterday morning.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
John, after talking with Adam, we have taken a hands off approach especially as lawyers are now involved. WTHR, WISH-TV and practically every news outlet reported only one side of the story (shocker there? Not really!) without ever talking to Adam. I do know the full story. But now that lawyers are involved, we are respecting Adam and the lawyers wishes not to discuss it till it is resolved.
Also, all of us were busy working on campaigns or working at the polls or doing something election day related. We found about it at a later time which also explains why there was no posting about it.
I hope that helps.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
If you’d like more control on the nomination of your candidates, you may consider moving away from these public primaries we have today and simply holding conventions or caucuses; like in days long ago.
November 8th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I really think this would be a good idea. It would be less expensive. We wouldn’t have beauty contests for primaries.
Just on cost. I think I heard that it takes about 30,000 poll workers to put on a primary or general election. If you pay each of them $100 (in Hamilton County it is a bit over that), the cost of a primary election is over $3 million just for the people. Not to mention signs; paying election machine vendors; paper costs; etc.